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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23533516">Silence is silver, but speech is golden</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternaluniverse/pseuds/eternaluniverse'>eternaluniverse</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, M/M, Post-Episode: s10e12 The Doctor Falls</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 15:54:45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,515</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23533516</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternaluniverse/pseuds/eternaluniverse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Master’s body was born out of anger. </p>
<p>Alone in another battlefield he waits for the Doctor to find him.<br/>But the Doctor never comes.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Eleventh Doctor/The Master (Dhawan), Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>30</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Silence is silver, but speech is golden</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I wanted to write something happy, I ended up writing <em>this</em> … </p>
<p>No idea if everyone but me already knows, but for all of you who didn’t hear it (like me), in the last episode, during the detonation of the bomb you can hear the Master yell something like “all of you, through here, now!” It’s very possible that we see him again! :) </p>
<p>Have fun!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Doctor…”</p>
<p>Missy doesn’t have any breath left, but she still calls for him.</p>
<p>
  <em>Doctor, where are you? </em>
</p>
<p>She tries to move but her useless brain doesn’t transmit her request. The overwhelming pain in her back spreads across every part of her body but she still can’t lift a finger.</p>
<p>Missy knows she’s paralysed, the beam of her own laser screwdriver fried all her nerves but she still feels the terrible pain.</p>
<p>She can’t even breath anymore, but her respirator bypass already kicked in. Missy has minutes left, she knows that she can’t escape death. But that’s okay, its worth to pay the price if she gets her friend back.</p>
<p>
  <em>Doctor, please. </em>
</p>
<p>Missy is choking now, her time is up, oh, she’s going to miss this body. But that’s not important anymore. Death isn’t anything new to her, she just wishes that the Doctor would hold her at her last heartbeats.</p>
<p>
  <em>Hurry up! </em>
</p>
<p>Her left heart already stopped. For a few frightening seconds she wonders if her corset couldn’t hold the worst of the beam off. Missy always had the terrible feeling that she was going to die due to a shot in the back. Of course, she took precautions.</p>
<p>
  <em>Please… I need you. </em>
</p>
<p>Her face is wet, but it’s only because of the terrible pain that increases every moment of her dying body. She’s the Master, she won’t cry because she’s dying alone.</p>
<p>Missy is angry at the Doctor because he lets her wait. She needs him now!</p>
<p>“Doctor.” It is her last word.</p>
<p>Missy’s body gets ripped apart.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Strange. There used to be a sky.</p>
<p>The world seems odd, the colours are all wrong. Blinking eyelids. Even stranger. It feels weird. It’s… wrong.</p>
<p>Gasps for breath, but no air in the lungs.</p>
<p>Cybermen. Laser screwdriver. Explosion. Pain. Doctor.</p>
<p>“Doctor!”</p>
<p>Oh. New voice.</p>
<p>Slowly his brain starts to pick up the lost traces. He regenerated.  </p>
<p>His throat is hoarse as if he screamed through the whole regeneration.<br/>The memory will come back but right now he’s glad he can’t remember the pain.</p>
<p>The Doctor must have heard him!</p>
<p>He just needs to wait. His body feels weak, but the Doctor will be with him in a moment.</p>
<p>Another gasp for breath but he can’t suck in the air, something heavy presses down on his chest.</p>
<p>Missy… no, he can’t call himself Missy anymore. The shortcut of his name doesn’t fit the anger that takes his whole mind.</p>
<p>He’s the Master.</p>
<p>And the Master is suffocating. Suffocation due to… shit, his corset.</p>
<p>Clumsy unfamiliar fingers try to get rid of the constriction and he can’t breathe, he can’t breathe!</p>
<p>
  <em>Doctor! </em>
</p>
<p>His mind screams for his friend because this new body hasn’t even taken a prober breath and he his voice won’t work without the air.</p>
<p>
  <em>Doctor help me. </em>
</p>
<p>The Master isn’t sure if he ripped his dress during the actual regeneration process or while his shaking hands tear at the corset. Finally, finally, he succeeds.</p>
<p>Oh, that’s nice. Although his throat burns while he sucks in the smoky air it feels so good to feel this body kicks in to properly work.</p>
<p>The Master lies on his back in another battlefield, still gasping for breath and waits for the Doctor.</p>
<p><br/>The Doctor still isn’t there.</p>
<p><em>Doctor?</em> Strange, he can’t feel his presence. His brain must still be fussing.</p>
<p>The Master is angry because he lets him wait. <em>Always late, Thete. Hurry up, please.</em></p>
<p>But the Doctor never comes for him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>His time sense hasn’t kicked in properly, yet, so the Master isn’t sure how long he lay in the burned remains of an artificial forest. At lest 30 minutes, he would guess.</p>
<p>Something is wrong.</p>
<p>He forces his groaning body to sit up. Oh, that’s strange, the weight of his breast is gone. New hands move over his again flat upper body. That’s weird. He chuckles.</p>
<p>The Master still can’t get used to his new voice, even the accent feels weird. It’s unusual deep after centuries of his female vocal tones. Every time he makes a noise his throat starts to tickle. Did it always feel that weird? All his other bodies have been male, but the tickling feels unfamiliar and familiar at the same time.</p>
<p>The Master’s new eyes pick up different spectrums of colours and paint his vision strangely shifted. Maybe it’s just his new way of seeing but his hands look strange, too. Way to big and oddly dark after the pale skin he’s used to.</p>
<p>He can feel stubbles. That’s nice he can grow a beard. He really missed his beard.</p>
<p>The Master would love to see his reflection, but he feels the shattered pieces of his pocket mirror inside his pocket. He starts to strobe up and down his new body.</p>
<p>Thick short hair, it only reaches past his eyes and it’s dark. That’s nice, he likes darker hair on himself and his concentration during the regeneration hadn’t been the best.</p>
<p>The body doesn’t fit his dress, and oh, yes, not female anymore.</p>
<p>He chuckles because he missed the feeling between his legs and still, it’s strange after centuries of Missy’s body.</p>
<p>Slowly, he tries to stand up. “Argh!” His feet have grown, of course they did. He kicks the shoes off, but still shoves them into one of his pockets.</p>
<p>The Master’s whole world shifts, he feels dizzy. He’s even taller than with Missy’s heels. That’s weird.</p>
<p>And still smaller than the Doctor… again. The Master sighs. But the Doctor needs to regenerate too, knowing him he’s going to make a fuss. He better finds his friend as fast as possible. Something is terrible wrong.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He thinks about Nardole and Bill while he walks barefoot through the burned ground. The Doctor is probably still busy trying to rescue the Egg. It still hurts him, that he doesn’t come for him first. But than again, he isn’t that easily killed as the Eggman.</p>
<p>The Master can talk himself into believing the excuse for another hour.</p>
<p>It’s hour six when he starts to panic. Maybe the Doctor is <em>dead</em>. His body wants nothing but to sleep, he starts seeing black edges, but he still keeps going. Every broken cybermen scares him – it might be the Doctor’s lifeless corpse.</p>
<p>It’s after eight hours and 17 minutes when he forces his brain to stop panicking. The Doctor won’t just <em>die</em>. The Master just needs to find him. Maybe he’s stuck under a pile of cybermen.</p>
<p>After 11 hours and 53 minutes the Master accepts, that the Doctor has left him.</p>
<p>The first emotion he feels is betrayal, but the feeling doesn’t stay long, it’s replaces with anger.</p>
<p>The Doctor left him to die.</p>
<p>The Master screams and screams and screams and screams but that doesn’t bring back the Doctor.</p>
<p>
  <em>Without hope, without witness, without reward. </em>
</p>
<p>He did everything the Doctor wanted him to do. He allowed him to lock him up, to treat him as one of his <em>pets</em>. Only to be left to die on that stupid space station too close to a black hole.</p>
<p>The Master doesn’t have most of his useful tools because the Doctor thought them too <em>dangerous</em>. And now he’s stuck, too close to the event horizon of a black hole and needs to find a way built something useful out of burned trash.</p>
<p>The Master sets to work to escape.  </p>
<p> </p>
<p>It feels <em>wrong</em> to kill O.</p>
<p>It’s different than destroying Gallifrey. He did it because they deserved it. Even if he’s nothing but a bad judge, he judged them.<br/>And they tortured a little child, killed the child repeatedly. They don’t deserve to live if they only do because of stolen knowledge. (Of course, it’s irrelevant that the child turned out the be <em>his Doctor</em>.)</p>
<p>O hasn’t done anything wrong, he just randomly fits his appearance and the function he needs to contain for the next years if he wants to surprise the Doctor.<br/>But he takes the identity of the shrunken man anyway and pushes his conscience away. He doesn’t need it anymore, the Doctor left him to die.</p>
<p>The rage is back and it’s easy to slip back into old routines.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He misses his makeup. The Master even puts it on, grinning at his reflection. The eyeliner underlines his self-confidence and he love how the eyeshadow lets his new eye colour shine.</p>
<p>But he needs to pass as a boring human if he wants to catch the Doctor.</p>
<p>His makeup disappears in one of his transdimensional pockets</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When the Doctor finally appears for the first time its (thanks to his disregarding of the timelines) a younger version he hasn’t met yet.</p>
<p>The Master did observe him when he set up the nethersphere, but he never spoke with him. This Doctor, he starts to call him Bowtie (it’s just embarrassing), is ridiculous. He capers even more than he did as an excited student and the Master doesn’t know if he should roll his eyes or laugh at him.</p>
<p>O decides to smile.</p>
<p>It’s even more embarrassing how easily Bowtie falls for the shy human. He won’t stop talking and O won’t stop smiling but the Master decides to end his rambling and kisses the Doctor.</p>
<p>Bowtie doesn’t know what to do with his hands and the Master can’t stop rolling his eyes about his awkwardness, but his eyes are closed anyway. It’s his first kiss in the new body but the Doctor doesn’t even seem to notice.</p>
<p>He acts like a twelve-year-old who doesn’t know how to kiss. That’s even more ridiculous knowing their past. And he has River who calls herself his <em>wife</em>. The poor woman.</p>
<p>He pulls away, pretending that he needs to catch his breath because he can’t stop the laugher that erupts in him. The Doctor looks at him, at O, with his ancient eyes in his too youthful body. Regardless he’s young, compared to Eyebrows he’s nothing but a child.</p>
<p>But the Master still takes him to O’s home, playing the awkward little human who doesn’t know how to use his hands. Thankfully Bowtie’s hands are capable to touch the right way and it’s strange, that gentleness.</p>
<p>The Master is embarrassed how much he likes O’s clumsy human, but gentle sex with the Doctor.</p>
<p>It’s somehow more peaceful than he expected, and he gets caught by himself how he gently kisses the sleeping form of his <em>friend/enemy</em> (?) who doesn’t look that ridiculous without his stupid bowtie.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The Doctor runs away like he always runs away but O manages to slip his number into one of his pockets. “Call me, Doctor!” He shouts after him.</p>
<p>The Master doesn’t expect Bowtie to answer him, but the Doctor is even fonder of humans than he believed was possible (or maybe it’s just <em>that human</em>, but he doesn’t finish the thought.)</p>
<p>
  <strong>It’s the Doctor. Thanks for helping with the invasion. </strong>
</p>
<p>The Master won’t stop laughing for the next 4 minutes but O answers with the innocent of a little teenage boy.</p>
<p>
  <strong>You were so nice.<br/>I would love to see you again. </strong>
</p>
<p>Of course, the Doctor doesn’t realise that he’s mocking him but somehow, it’s nice to write with him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>And they write.</p>
<p>It’s easy to forget how much time passes for the Doctor because the Master is stuck in this boring place, but there are times when he won’t stop writing him.</p>
<p>Bowtie uses way too many silly emojis and gives him speeches that sound like the work of a child. But sometimes, only visible to someone who <em>knows</em> him, the cheerful façade slips, and the old traumatised man gives the Master a lost look as if he askes him to be saved.</p>
<p>
  <strong>I’m going to die. </strong>
</p>
<p>The Doctor writes him only to delete it seconds later and replace it with unsubstantial rambling. O acts like he never saw the message, but the Master has the stupid feeling to hug the idiot.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Eyebrows is even more untalented at writing him, short meaningless sentences every decade if he needs to guess. The Doctor definitely has an identity crisis.</p>
<p>
  <strong>Do you think I’m a good man? </strong>
</p>
<p>The Master rolls his eyes about the stupid man and lets O answer him exactly what the old man wants to hear.</p>
<p>He even writes him after his former self appeared for the first time, he sounds so lonely and somehow the Master ends up talking about friendship and what a brilliant friend he is only to think about the betrayal the man is going to do.<br/>After his voice message the Doctor sends him the first emoji in his eyebrow-dominated-body.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The Doctor even has a surprise left for him.</p>
<p>
  <strong>Look, I regenerated, what do you think?! </strong>
</p>
<p>Followed by a picture. Interesting, he never met that Doctor.</p>
<p>He expects another stupid looking man and gets a selfie of <em>her</em>.</p>
<p>The Master starts to laugh, because she always had been so bad at regeneration and he might had inspired her as Missy.</p>
<p>And yet, she looks perfect… and quite doctor-ish.</p>
<p>The Doctor starts to send him nearly daily messages or voice mails. Even regularly pictures pop up. Interesting, that’s new.</p>
<p>He likes the sound of her voice and the Doctor won’t stop talking and talking. The Master finds himself grinning while sending her silly cat videos.</p>
<p>The Master starts to call her Rainbow, because, <em>seriously Theta, that shirt?!</em></p>
<p>Oh, and he flirts with her. O’s clumsy, shy tries to make the first move actually seem to work (or the Doctor exaggerates with her <em>kindness</em>).</p>
<p>
  <strong>I want to see you again! </strong>
</p>
<p>He askes her over and over again but she always finds an excuse. The Master only rolls his eyes while O’s answers become more and more disappointing. But it doesn’t matter which body the Doctor wears, she’s always a coward, always runs away.</p>
<p>The good thing is, that the Master never cared about her gutlessness and <em>he will meet that Doctor! </em></p>
<p>She’s even the same age as him, he can’t see it as a coincidence anymore. As much as the Master likes his play as O, it’s time to put up his Tardis’s shields and meet the Doctor in linear order.</p>
<p>He hasn’t spent years on earth to bring his plan to perfection only to stop now because she <em>likes </em>his fake personality. The Master want to meet her in person. That’s going to be fun!</p>
<p>Oh, he can’t wait to see her face when she realises who she spilled her secrets to.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He’s somehow even sad to drop the façade. Now he needs to hurt the Doctor, it had been nice to play the dumb human who <em>really</em> liked the Doctor.</p>
<p>The Master still wants his friend back. But he knows he possible lost him forever. Destroying Gallifrey… the Doctor won’t be able to forgive him.</p>
<p>Even if he did it for her. (Which, of course, he never did.)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>During all their useless fights neither the Master nor the Doctor think about talking about their last encounter as Missy and Eyebrows.</p>
<p>It’s ridiculous sad, as always, because the Doctor and the Master hurt each other due to a stupid misunderstanding.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading! </p>
<p>I hope you enjoyed it.<br/>I would really appreciate feedback.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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